Religions > Atheism > Abramoff Email: Bob Ney (R, Scum), Paid For "Favors" (GOP, The Stench of Corruption)
| Topic: |
Religions > Atheism |
| User: |
"Yang, AthD h.c, Kicking AWOLs Cocaine Snorting Ass" |
| Date: |
15 Jan 2006 09:35:11 PM |
| Object: |
Abramoff Email: Bob Ney (R, Scum), Paid For "Favors" (GOP, The Stench of Corruption) |
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1149345,00.html
Jack Abramoff's $10,000 Question
By ADAM ZAGORIN, MASSIMO CALABRESI
SUBSCRIBE TO TIMEPRINTE-MAILMORE BY AUTHOR
Posted Sunday, Jan. 15, 2006
Lobbyist Jack Abramoff's Oct. 23, 2000, e-mail to his business partner
Michael Scanlon was, as usual, not subtle. "Would 10K for NRCC from
Suncruz for Ney help?" Scanlon shot back: "Yes, alot [sic]! But would
have to give them a definate [sic] answer--and they need it this week
...."
That electronic exchange, a record of which was reviewed by TIME, is
among the evidence that Republican Congressman Bob Ney of Ohio
accepted favors from Abramoff and Scanlon as part of an alleged quid
pro quo--a charge to which the business partners each recently
confessed in larger plea deals. While the plea agreements spell out
various gifts, campaign donations and junkets that Abramoff and
Scanlon say they provided to Ney in return for "official acts," the
e-mails present in one place the specific elements of a swap that
Abramoff has told investigators was prearranged and explicitly
reciprocal, according to a source close to the Justice Department
probe. To wit: a $10,000 donation to the Republicans just days before
Ney inserted into the Congressional Record a statement praising an
Abramoff business partner. Ney's lawyer, Mark Tuohey, calls the
accusations "totally false."
Abramoff has told the feds, according to the source, that Ney, the
chairman of the powerful Committee on House Administration, and his
staff repeatedly demanded help in raising cash for the National
Republican Campaign Committee--the "NRCC" of Abramoff's e-mail. Under
then House majority leader Tom DeLay, Ney and his fellow G.O.P.
chairmen had to meet steep fund-raising quotas or risk losing their
plum positions.
On Oct. 20, 2000, the e-mail records show, Scanlon sent Abramoff
Scanlon's draft of a statement praising Adam Kidan, a co-owner of
SunCruz Casinos, a Florida gambling-boat company that Abramoff and
Kidan had bought the month before, after a public dispute with the
previous owner. Abramoff and Kidan, who have since pleaded guilty in
Florida to fraud in connection with their financing of the SunCruz
purchase, hoped that Ney's positive statement would "let people know
that SunCruz now was in honest hands," according to a source familiar
with the case. In an Oct. 23 e-mail, Abramoff proposed throwing
$10,000 at the NRCC in the form of a SunCruz check signed by Kidan.
The money was sent within days, and Ney got credit within the G.O.P.
for raising it. Ney then inserted praise for Kidan into the Oct. 26
Congressional Record.
Tuohey denies that Ney was under pressure to raise funds and says his
client had no contact with Abramoff or Scanlon regarding SunCruz.
"There was a check to NRCC by SunCruz, and Ney knew nothing about it,"
Tuohey says.
As the Abramoff scandal has unfolded, alarm has spread on Capitol Hill
that Justice Department prosecutors are building corruption cases on
legally reported campaign donations--a worry that revelations of the
alleged Ney quid pro quo are sure to fuel. Although refusing to
comment on the specifics of the Ney case, a U.S. government expert on
criminal law made the following point: "Contributions are lawful only
if made in support of a lawmaker's policies. They are clearly illegal
as part of a prenegotiated deal involving a quid pro quo." For a host
of nervous politicians familiar with the murky ways of Washington,
that fine a distinction is probably small comfort.
With reporting by Melissa August/Washington
-----
Yang
a.a. #28
AthD (h.c.) conferred by the regents of the LCL
a.a. pastor #-273.15, the most frigid church of Celcius nee Kelvin
EAC Econometric Forecast and Sorcery Division
Proudly plonked by Lani Girl and Crazyalec (aka aka Yang's little poltregeist *****)
The Bush 'balanced' budget: 2 trillion and worsening
The Bush 'economic' policy: 12.5 million FEWER jobs than Clinton and counting
The Bush Iraq lie: -2216 GIs, one friend's co-worker's son and mounting
Having Bush ***** up my country: Worthless
-----
Contact duke's priest and ask
him why duke is such a racist:
http://www.stpatrickbr.org/
Father Gerard "Jerry" Martin
stpatrickbr<AT>bellsouth<DOT>net
Saint Patrick Catholic Church
12424 Brogdon Lane
Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70816
.
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